Hunger Strike of Two Political Activists in Tabriz and Evin Prisons

Siamak Mirzaei and Habib Sasaniyan, two Turkish political activists currently imprisoned in Evin and Tabriz prisons, have been on hunger strike for over two weeks. Habib Sasaniyan was arrested in May of last year along with five others on charges of espionage, with the head of the East Azerbaijan judiciary identifying them as members of the 'GAMO separatist group' and stating that they were 'collecting classified military and economic documents and providing them to the enemies of the regime.' Ultimately, all members of this group were released from Tabriz prison on bail, except for Habib Sasaniyan, who remains detained in the twelfth ward of Tabriz prison. Naqi Mahmoudi, a lawyer residing in Germany and former defender of some civil activists, stated in an interview with Radio Farda that 'despite several hearings in the second branch of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court presided over by Hamid Baqerpour, no ruling has yet been issued for Habib Sasaniyan. Sasaniyan is in poor physical condition on the seventeenth day of his hunger strike in Tabriz prison and has been transferred to the prison infirmary several times due to his deteriorating health.' Siamak Mirzaei has also been sentenced to ten years of imprisonment and two years of exile in Tabas for 'forming a group to disrupt national security' by the Revolutionary Court of Baharestan, presided over by Bahram Hasani (the head of the judiciary and special judge of the Baharestan Revolutionary Court). Mahmoudi noted that Mirzaei's lawyer has requested an appeal against the ruling, but no decision has been communicated to either Siamak Mirzaei or his lawyer regarding the confirmation or annulment of the sentence. He, who has been detained since July 2016 in Parsabad Moghan and transferred to Evin prison in Tehran, announced in an open letter that 'due to repeated obstructions in the handling of his case until the reduction and adjustment of the issued bail, as well as the completion of the deficiencies in the case for the holding of the appeal court, he will go on hunger strike starting from Saturday, June 17, 2017.' Mahmoudi considers the hunger strike of these two Azerbaijani prisoners in Tabriz and Evin prisons as 'legitimate' in light of their violated rights and believes that 'a prisoner, having lost hope in legal mechanisms, resorts to his last weapon, which is his life.'